Sofiyska Voda (Sofia Water) provides water and wastewater services to the people of Sofia. It is a company jointly owned by United Utilities, the Sofia Municipality and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).
Contract details
- Start date - October 2000
- Duration - 25 years
- Sofiyska Voda provides services to 1.5 million people in Sofia and has more than 1,200 employees
Key elements of contract/service provision to cover
The concession was the first of its kind in Bulgaria and provides a potential model for the future of the water industry in Bulgaria.
The concession agreement commits the company to invest millions of pounds to:
- Develop the infrastructure
- Increase water quality
- Reduce leakages and pollution
Sofiyska Voda's work helped Bulgaria meet strict EU water and environmental quality standards ahead of its accession to the EU on January 1, 2007.
Fast facts
- Sofiyska Voda looks after more than 4,000 km of water mains and 2,000 km of sewers and has already replaced/built over 80,000 metres of mains - greater than the entire length of Sofia's ring road
- It supplies more than 250 million cubic metres of clean drinking water a day and takes away 180 million cubic metres of wastewater before returning it safely to the environment
- It has invested more than £51 million to begin to turn around the city's historically under-invested water assets, with another £280 million planned over the next 20 years.
- Customer satisfaction increased from 23% in 2000 to more than 70% in 2005
- There has been a significant improvement in water quality with a 75% reduction in non-compliant water quality samples
- In 2004, Sofiyska Voda was awarded a United Nations' award for its contribution to environmental protection and has won multiple awards for its community relationships in education programmes
